Toulouse: “We sort half as much in the city as in the countryside”
Laure Poddevin, regional director of Citéo, a company tasked at national level with collecting data on selective sorting, answers questions from the Dépêche du Midi.
We sort less in Haute-Garonne than in the region or in France. Why ?
Haute-Garonne sorts around 10 kg of household and paper packaging less than the regional and national average. This is not new, there is a strong gap between rural and urban departments, in fact we sort twice as well in the city as in the countryside: in 2020, we sorted 58 kg of packaging in Haute-Garonne. household goods while more than 100 kg are sorted in the Lot. Gard and Hérault are just behind Haute-Garonne (like the least sorting departments, Editor’s note). This delay is also due to the fact that the simplified sorting process is not very developed in Haute-Garonne.
What is simplified sorting?
For the past ten years or so, certain communities have developed simplified sorting, which allows all plastic packaging to be placed in the same (yellow) bin, whereas historically, paper and cardboard, metal and aluminum packaging but only bottles are placed. and plastic bottles, but not the yoghurt pots, the meat trays, the plastic bags. Simplified sorting avoids the doubt linked to plastics: there are no longer any exceptions. on met all in the same tray. In Occitania, 50% of the population practices this simplified gesture while only 5% of the population of Haute-Garonne is concerned by the simplified sorting. In 2023, by law, 100% of French people will be sorting simplified.
Comment do you get there?
This will involve the modernization of the current sorting centers which do not allow this simplified sorting. Optical sorting machines allow these plastic objects and packaging not yet sorted to be recognized.
What effects has the health crisis had on sorting?
Haute-Garonne is the department that generated the most for the collection and sorting of glass, with a 7% increase in 2020, in particular thanks to the Toulouse metropolis. Cardboard sorting continued despite the shutdown of sorting centers, one to two weeks at the start of the crisis, offset by the increase in packaging produced by e-commerce during confinement.